There was an exciting first round of the 8th World Team Championship in Ningbo, China with just 8 of the 20 games drawn. Armenia took an early lead with a thumping 3.5-1.5 win against Israel, Russia convincingly beat the USA 3-1 and Ukraine beat bottom seeds Egypt 2.5-1.5 but conceded a loss, the other 2 matches were drawn.

Chessclub Jyväs-Shakki organized the 21st Open Heart of Finland in Jyväskylä, Finland, on 11-17th July, 2011. The playing venue was Harju Building of Jyväskylä College, Sepänkatu 3, Jyväskylä. The Heart of Finland tournament is the biggest annual chess event in Finland.

Veselin TopalovΜία πολύ όμορφη παρτίδα ανάμεσα στον Ρώσο GM Andrei Kharlov με τα λευκά και τον Βούλγαρο GM Veselin Topalov με τα μαύρα θα παρακολουθήσουμε απόψε. Μετά από μία καυτή καλοκαιρινή ημέρα μία εξαιρετικά "καυτή" παρτίδα είναι ότι...

Armenia took an early lead at the World Team Championship in Ningbo, China. In the first round the team, with Levon Aronian on board one and Sergey Movsesian on two, defeated Israel (without Boris Gelfand) 3.5-0.5. Russia beat USA 3-1. The World Team Championship takes place July 15-26 in the 5-star New Century Grand Hotel [...]

Here are the results from the first round of the World Team Championship: Russia 3 - USA 1 Armenia 3.5 - Israel .5 Ukraine 2.5 - Egypt 1.5 China 2 - Azerbaijan 2 Hungary 2 - India 2 Russia beat India in textbook fashion, winning both games with White and drawing with Black. On board 1, Kamsky chose an interesting anti-Berlin approach, sacrificing a pawn to saddle Karjakin with tripled, isolated...

Every week we present you an endgame study selected by IM Yochanan Afek: player, trainer, endgame study composer and writer. A week later the solution is published. Good luck solving! –> IM Yochanan Afek’s Official Website V. Vlasenko 2010 White to play and draw Next week the solution. Solution last week V. Aberman 2010 new [...]

The International Championship of Slovakia was played from 9th to 17th July 2011 in Banská Štiavnica for the second year in succession. The Championship was managed by SSZ, Town and SK Banska Stiavnica, and split into two groups - Open A and Open B.

Τρεις προπαγανδιστικές σκακιστικές καρτ ποστάλ από την εποχή του Πρώτου Παγκοσμίου πολέμου."Έι, σταδιακά κερδίζω έδαφος." (1914)"Το 1914 σημειώνουμε πρόοδο, το 1915 θα κερδίσουμε." (1914)"Σαχ!Σάχ!"Οι αρχηγοί του γερμανικού...

World Team Chess Championship 2011 (aka WTCC 2011) starts July 17th in Ngibo, China.

Ο Vasik Rajlich, ο δημιουργός της Rybka, δεν είχε μιλήσει δημόσια τις πρώτες μέρες, όταν η Παγκόσμια Ένωση Παιχνιδιών Υπολογιστών (ICGA), τον τιμώρησε δια βίου με αποκλεισμό από τις διοργανώσεις και τον υποχρέωσε να επιστρέψει τα...

Είναι ο Γερμανός σκηνοθέτης Φόλκερ Σλέντορφ και στις φωτογραφίες, βλέπουμε σκάκι, από την ταινία του Homo Faber (1991, αγγλικός τίτλος: The Voyager, βασισμένη στο μυθιστόρημα του Μαξ Φρις). Ο «σκηνοθέτης της λογοτεχνίας», όπως...

You can find the full listings, and how they qualified, here. The World Cup is one branch of the qualifying process for the 2014 world championship, so there are lots of heavy hitters there. One surprising absence from the list is Hikaru Nakamura. As he can also qualify for the next Candidates by being one of the top three highest-rated players in the world (excepting the world champion) not...

Lev Polugaevsky was a great player, worthy of commemorating with a chess tournament or two, but alas: both in the recent event won by Dvoirys and in the famous Buenos Aires tournament in 1994, held a year or so before his death, none of the players saw fit to honor him by playing his signature variation. The Polugaevsky Variation (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 b5!?)...

And Viktor Korchnoi is 80 years old, too. Amazing! It was an open championship, and in fact Christian Bauer won the tournament with 7.5/9, with Andrei Sokolov coming second with 7. They're both French, however, so Korchnoi and Joseph Gallagher, as the best performing Swiss players (on tiebreak; there were other Swiss players with 6.5 points) went to a two-game playoff. Korchnoi won the first game...

If last week's show has you suffering the Berlin blues, cheer up! This week's show is as different as can be. No turgid maneuvers with a premium on flexibility, nosirree. The Velimirovic Attack against the Classical Sicilian is an ultra-sharp line requiring imagination, the ability to calculate deeply (and nowadays, of course, the ability to remember your computer preparation). White often sacs...